Rigid Audio released the free Rigid Grand piano virtual instrument for the full version of Kontakt.
The 1.5 GB multi-sampled grand piano library has 16 velocity layers and separate release samples.
The sound of Rigid Grand is natural and warm. You can modify the sound of the piano with the integrated reverb control, as well as the blend control, which blends in a downpitched variant of the piano.
Rigid Audio, based in Berlin, Germany, specializes in Kontakt instruments.
The developer created Rigid Grand exclusively for the paid version of Kontakt, with version 6.8.0 or newer required.
The piano library was originally sampled by Alexander Holm and Chisato Yamauchi.
Rigid Audio founder and CEO Dennis Lenz demonstrated how Rigid Grand was created with Kontakt GUI Maker in a video on the product page.
The video also functions somewhat as a demo, although the audio demonstration of the Rigid Grand is fairly brief.
Lenz based the virtual instrument on an open-source piano library uploaded last year by Holm and Yamauchi, which is also linked on the product page.
Holm and Yamauchi describe their original 48 kHz, 24-bit library as an “SFZ semi-concert grand piano with a high level of homogeneity/continuity that can reproduce beautiful sounds by remastering all 480 samples of the Salamander Grand.”
There are several more comprehensive audio demos hosted by Yamauchi of the original piano library, which you can find in a post he made about the creation of the library here.
The pair created the library through quite a meticulous process to ensure the quality of the samples, as detailed in the post.
The audio demos were made with the help of professional musician Katsuhiro Oguri, who provided the MIDI data required to create the demos.
The demos demonstrate various performances in a classical piano style.
Yamauchi and Holm’s project is ongoing. The pair released the 4.0 version of the instrument on May 14, 2024, and followed it up with a beta of version 4.1 a week later.
Development for version 5 is also currently underway.
Lenz created the Rigid Grand with the Kontakt GUI Maker.
Kontakt GUI Maker is a recently released Rigid Audio product designed to allow users to create and sell their own Kontakt instruments without any programming.
The Windows and macOS product is currently available at an introductory price of $60, down from the regular price of $80.
The full version of Kontakt is 64-bit only and is available for Windows and Mac in VST3, AU, and AAX.
Download: Rigid Grand (FREE – Kontakt version 6.8.0 or higher required)
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Last Updated on May 28, 2024 by Tomislav Zlatic.
